Canton Fair 2022: Hi-Tech Luggage Showcased at the 131st Canton Fair

GUANGZHOU, China, April 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The 131st Canton Fair will be held online from April 15-24. Now, through various social media channels, the Fair has promoted various exhibits including cases and bags.

With the rapid development of the global society and economy and the improvement of people’s living standards, luggage has become a necessity in people’s lives as travel, business trips and other activities becoming more frequent.

The 130th Canton Fair has displayed a wide range of new commodities, including an anti-theft backpack, a dual-use carbon fiber case, school backpack bags adapted for ergonomics. Many buyers were surprised after watching livestreams, and left comments in social media accounts of Canton Fair. Hakim Jarrar from Spain was one of them, and he said the Cases & Bags section looked like a sci-fi world with everything one expected to find. Many commented in Canton Fair social media accounts, expressing the expectation of more hi-tech luggage at the 131st session.

With over 20,000 enterprises, China is a large luggage producer, occupying more than 70% of the global share. Manufacturers are mainly located in coastal provinces and cities such as Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and inland provinces including Hebei and Hunan.

The huge international luggage demand and the competitive pressure brought about by the high concentration of the industry chain have pushed more and more luggage business owners to focus on improving product quality. Beyond pursuit of beauty, many business owners have explored quality, practicality, and personalization. Some enterprises, taking “human+bag+technology” approaches, have collected numerous independent R&D patents, and their masterpieces have won awards in famous design contests at home and abroad. An example is the sustainable solar energy backpack, which won the Goldreed Industrial Design Awards for its innovative use of flexible solar panels to realize the transformation from light energy into electric energy and energy storage.

According to Alan Liu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair, the USB interface design on luggage has become the standard at the Canton Fair. Gyroscopes are installed in backpacks to send alarms when the elderly fall. The 131st Canton Fair will continue to display a number of intelligent and fashionable new products through its “Cloud Platform”, aiming to help China’s intelligent manufacturing better go global and benefit the world.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email  for more opportunities.

Canton Fair 2022: China Emerging as Key Player in Clean Energy Innovation

GUANGZHOU, China, April 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The 131st Canton Fair is set to open this April, and preparatory work for the Fair is well underway.

“Since establishing the New Energy section at the 116th Canton Fair, the development of China’s new energy industry is moving at breakneck speed,” Alan Liu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair, tells the journalist. As China attaches significant importance to clean energy development, unprecedented opportunities are provided for enterprises at home and abroad.

Energy is fundamental for human survival and development. In the early days of the founding of the PRC, the industry developed slowly due to insufficient energy productivity and low production levels. At that time, China needed to import basic commodities for lighting in daily life and furnace coke used in the iron and steel industry.

With rapid development over 70 years, China has grown into the largest energy producer across the globe. From importing energy products to the “dual carbon,” goal, from a country short of oil to a “world hydropower kingdom”, the Canton Fair has witnessed the extraordinary course of China’s energy industry transition.

To reach climate and sustainable development goals, China proposed the targets of peak carbon by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 and made it clear that during the 14th Five Year Plan period, a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system would be built to control the total amount of fossil fuel used and shift to renewable energy. It has become a consensus among Chinese energy companies to focus on advanced technologies and innovation capabilities.

The recent games in Beijing have also become a vivid sample of China’s transition toward carbon neutrality. A series of green power supply projects, represented by the Zhangbei VSC-HVDC project, ensured these games were the first to be 100 percent supplied by green power. It is expected to reduce standard coal burning by 128,000 tons and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 320,000 tons. At night, the glittering “Ice Ribbon” has left a deep impression on the global audience.

Alan Liu says, the Canton Fair will encourage and attract more green enterprises to participate, promote the full-scale green development of the exhibition, create a new model of a zero-carbon exhibition hall, set a green benchmark in the exhibition industry, and serve the national “dual carbon” strategy.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email for more opportunities.

Canton Fair 2022: China’s Sustainable Chemical Industry Gathers Great Momentum Thanks to Intelligent Manufacturing

GUANGZHOU, China, April 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The 131st Canton Fair will be held online from April 15-24. The top trading event in China is once again ready to open its arms to the world.

China’s “Two Sessions” have already concluded in Beijing, yet topics on the innovation-driven development strategy are still much discussed among China’s chemical industry. As a pillar of the national economy, China’s chemical industry is large in scale, long in the industrial chain, concentrated in capital and technology, and massive in driving effect. However, the demand for high-end chemical productions, pronouncedly the new chemical materials, has greatly outrun the supply, making China dependent on imports of superconducting chemical materials featuring high strength, high heat resistance, high ultra-purity, super-fine, high wear resistance.

Thanks to the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan Development Guideline for Petroleum and Chemicals and the Long-Range Objectives through the Year 2035, China’s basic chemicals industry reaches a tipping point for crucial changes, and high-end, green chemical products become a new trend. A number of key technologies for new chemical materials and high-end chemicals, such as POE and environmental-friendly catalysts, have been developed and obtained patents, breaking foreign monopolies.

The Canton Fair is a world-renowned comprehensive trading event, bringing together Chinese chemical brands and global buyers. The past sessions have witnessed a large number of transactions on high value-added chemical products, special products and brand products, such as silicone, adhesives, special coatings, and plastic products, which buyers favor. Chemical manufacturers with strong R&D and innovation capabilities are thriving with considerable turnover.

Accelerated industrial upgrading is also bringing new opportunities to China’s chemical industry. According to CINIC, China’s petrochemical industry reported a revenue of RMB14.45 trillion in 2021, up 30% year-on-year; total profits of RMB1.16 trillion, up 126.8%; total imports and exports of US$860.08 billion, up 38.7% compared with last year.

Maggie Pu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair, says that Canton Fair has been promoting “Intelligent Manufacturing in China” to the international arena. As with the “Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality” strategy, this year’s Canton Fair will continue to encourage chemical exhibitors to showcase more of their latest “green chemicals” and “high-end intelligent” products, enabling global buyers to share opportunities in China and benefits of green development.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email  for more opportunities.

Canton Fair 2022: Innovation Bolsters China’s Building Material Sustainability

GUANGZHOU, China, April 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The 131st Canton Fair is a few steps away from its opening. Every time, green and low-carbon development will come into the limelight. It is of great concern to domestic and overseas buyers how China’s home building materials industry, the epicenter of carbon emissions, will reduce pollution and carbon footprints.

As indicated in the 2020 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction by International Energy Agency, carbon emissions from buildings and construction account for 35% to 38% of the total. The 2020 Report on China Building Energy Consumption tells that, in 2018, carbon emissions generated over buildings’ life cycle were 4.93 billion tons, 51.3% of the national total emissions. Carbon reduction in the building sector is crucial for carbon peak and carbon neutrality.

PV and wind power are taking up a larger proportion of China’s energy mix, which has led to the development of PV glass and glass fiber product industry chains. The building materials industry is transforming into a pillar of the renewable energy industry. More efforts are channeled into energy efficiency, emissions reduction, decarbonization, zero-carbon, and especially innovative technologies such as power generation glass plus energy storage, green hydrogen, carbon capture, utilization and sequestration. The display glass, carbon fiber, and glass fiber exhibited at the Canton Fair in recent years have been of great interest to international buyers. During the 130th Canton Fair, the China Home Furnishing Industry Green Development Summit Forum was held in the Canton Fair Complex specifically.

In addition to the green transformation of exhibits, the Canton Fair Complex is moving towards zero-carbon. According to Alan Liu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair, green building materials such as recycled concrete blocks and ALC slatwall have been utilized in the Canton Fair Complex expansion project. The concepts of low-carbon technology and energy-efficient operation highlight the charm of “China’s No.1  Fair.”

According to the China Building Materials Federation, Market Penetration Index (MPI) for FY 2021 was 109.7 points, a rebound of 8.9 points from the previous year. The industry’s high-quality development also provided strong support for a stable domestic economy. It is eagerly awaited what the green building materials industry holds for the 131st session, and how it may surprise us and facilitate a brand-new kind of wonderful lifestyle.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email  for more opportunities.

Canton Fair 2022: Intelligent Manufacturing Upgrade Empowers Rapid Evolution of China’s Machinery Industry

GUANGZHOU, China, April 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The 131st Canton Fair will be held online from April 15-24. According to Maggie Pu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair, a slew of highly-expected new products will be released in the machinery exhibition section this year.

As one of the most-visited exhibition sections at the Canton Fair, Machinery at the Canton Fair boasts big numbers in exhibits and turnover. Once incompetent, China’s machinery industry has drastically developed under the “innovation-driven” strategy.

China’s machinery industry is well-diversified. Fierce competition in the international market stimulates enterprises to take more seriously the product quality and costs and the capability to develop new products. Responding to the demands, enterprises have invested manpower and resources in strengthening the R&D of core technologies, which directly accelerated the transformation and upgrading of China’s machinery manufacturing industry.

In recent years, high-end equipment, including ultra-high voltage power transmission and distribution equipment, ten-million tonnage level oil refining equipment, and one-million tonnage level large ethylene equipment were developed, breaking the foreign company dominance. Emerging industries, such as robotics, have seen breakthroughs in motion control and high-performance servo drives. General machinery, agriculture machinery, small processing machinery and industrial parts have also formed a complete industrial chain. According to the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association(VDMA), in 2020, China overtook Germany in the world rankings of machinery and equipment export with the lion’s share of 15.8% at €165 billion.

The Canton Fair brings together competent machinery manufacturing enterprises. Each session, leading exhibitors such as Guangzhou Tech-Long Packaging Machinery Co., Ltd., Hubei Tri-Ring Metal-Forming Equipment Import & Export Co., Ltd., and Hualian Machinery Group Co., Ltd. exhibited their new products at the Fair. New products include various intelligent equipment of different sizes, such as photoelectric complementary generator sets, new intelligent agricultural machinery, and digital silent inverter generator.

With the implementation of the “14th Five-Year Plan” for the Machinery Industry Development, China’s pertinent sectors will embrace much progress. The infrastructure boom in “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) countries, together with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) taking effect, renders a broad stage for China’s machinery industry to quickly become internationally advanced. As a bond of friendship and a bridge for trade, the Canton Fair is witnessing the evolution of China’s manufacturing and machinery industries.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email  for more opportunities.

WHO Says It Is Analyzing Two New Omicron COVID Sub-variants

The World Health Organization said on Monday it is tracking a few dozen cases of two new sub-variants of the highly transmissible omicron strain of the coronavirus to assess whether they are more infectious or dangerous.

It has added BA.4 and BA.5, sister variants of the original BA.1 omicron variant, to its list for monitoring. It is already tracking BA.1 and BA.2 — now globally dominant — as well as BA.1.1 and BA.3.

The WHO said it had begun tracking them because of their “additional mutations that need to be further studied to understand their impact on immune escape potential.”

Viruses mutate all the time but only some mutations affect their ability to spread or evade prior immunity from vaccination or infection, or the severity of disease they cause.

For instance, BA.2 now represents nearly 94% of all sequenced cases and is more transmissible than its siblings, but the evidence so far suggests it is no more likely to cause severe disease.

Only a few dozen cases of BA.4 and BA.5 have been reported to the global GISAID database, according to WHO.

The UK’s Health Security Agency said last week BA.4 had been found in South Africa, Denmark, Botswana, Scotland and England from Jan. 10 to March 30.

All the BA.5 cases were in South Africa as of last week, but on Monday Botswana’s health ministry said it had identified four cases of BA.4 and BA.5, all among people aged 30 to 50 who were fully vaccinated and experiencing mild symptoms.

Source: Voice of America

Police Deploy to Villages in Nigeria’s Plateau State After Attacks Kill 70

Police in Nigeria’s central Plateau state say they have sent extra officers to nine villages where gunmen on Sunday reportedly killed more than 70 people and burned down houses. Police and locals say hundreds of villagers have fled their homes since then. Attacks by armed gangs are becoming increasingly common in northern and central Nigeria.

The Plateau State Police public relations officer, Gabriel Ubah, tells VOA that police have sent reinforcements to the affected villages including Kukawa, Giyanbahu, Dangur and Keren.

“We’re doing our possible best. Security operatives will be deployed to the areas and we’ve also renewed our strategies which will not be made known to the public. It’s an in-house security strategy that has been put in place,” he said.

Ubah said police have yet to determine the number of casualties from the attacks. Local residents say more bodies were discovered Monday.

Armed gangs invaded the villages in broad daylight on Sunday, shooting sporadically and torching houses. Local residents say the victims included farmers who were tilling their fields in preparation for planting. They say the attackers abducted dozens of people, including women and children.

The attacks occurred barely one week after 17 people were killed elsewhere in Plateau during a festival held to pray for peace and a bountiful harvest.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Attacks by marauding armed gangs in northwest and central Nigeria are becoming more common, causing widespread criticism of the Nigerian government.

Last week, gunmen attacked an army base in Kaduna state, killing 15 people.

Late last month, terrorists attacked a train in Kaduna, killing eight people and kidnapping dozens of others. Most of the abductees have yet to be freed. In a video released Monday, abductees were seen calling on authorities for help.

Security expert Kabiru Adamu says authorities must take responsibility for failing to protect the public.

“It is very important that we introduce monitoring and evaluation within the security sector and include in this monitoring and evaluation key performance indicators so that persons who let down the ball and allowed these attacks to happen are held accountable and whatever the punishment or penalty for that is meted out on them. We also need to increase the participation of the communities in the security operations,” said Adamu.

Last week, Nigerian telecommunications operators complied with a government order to bar phone numbers not registered under the country’s national identification scheme, in a bid to track those used by criminals, especially terrorists.

Source: Voice of America

Russia’s Nordgold Shuts Burkina Faso Mine Due to Security Threats

Russia’s Nordgold is shutting down its Taparko mine in Burkina Faso and calling force majeure, citing the deteriorating security situation in the West African country, according to a company statement seen on Monday.

Burkina Faso, like its neighbors Mali and Niger, is battling armed militants linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group who have carried out attacks killing thousands of people and displacing over 2 million others in the West Africa Sahel region.

The gold producer faces increasing threats against its operations and staff each day, Alexander Hagan Mensa, director-general of Nordgold subsidiary Société des Mines de Taparko, said in a statement dated April 9, seen by Reuters.

Nordgold’s head of corporate communications confirmed in an email that the statement was official.

Access to the site has become “quasi-impossible” in recent weeks, and the situation is putting the lives of on-site staff members in grave danger, according to the statement.

“The company finds itself in a situation of total incapacity to continue its activities,” Mensa wrote. “We are therefore advising you of the halt of our mining activities because of force majeure and for security reasons.”

He called on staff to remain calm and “follow the evacuation plan and management’s instructions.”

Nordgold declined to give further details on evacuation procedures or say whether employees’ contracts were being terminated.

The Taparko mine was Burkina Faso’s first industrial gold mine, launching in 2005, according to Nordgold’s website. It is in Namantenga province, approximately 200 kilometers (124.3 miles) northeast of Ouagadougou.

Taparko, which Nordgold acquired in 2008, produced 53,500 ounces of gold in the first nine months of 2021, according to the company’s latest report. Full-year production figures are not yet available.

The mine is located south of the market town of Dori, which has witnessed several attacks by armed militants in recent months. It is close to the tri-border area of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, where militants linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State control swaths of territory.

The government of Burkina Faso, which has a 10% stake in Taparko, did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the mine’s closure.

Sanctions affecting Nordgold

The forced shutdown is another blow for Nordgold as it navigates disruptions linked to Russian sanctions. It also operates the Bissa and Bouly mines in Burkina Faso, the Lefa mine in Guinea, four mines in Russia, and one in Kazakhstan.

Though not under sanctions, Nordgold, like other Russian miners, has faced disruptions due to the sanctions regime and counterparties self-sanctioning.

Alexey Mordashov, previously the controlling shareholder in Nordgold, was sanctioned by the European Union on February 28 because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

United Kingdom company filings show Mordashov transferred part of his more than 75% stake in Nordgold to Marina Aleksandrovna Mordashova on February 28, leaving her with a more than 50% stake. Mordashov resigned as director of Nordgold on March 1.

Four foreign directors stepped down from Nordgold’s board on March 7.

The Swiss gold refiner MKS PAMP, which used to refine gold from Nordgold’s mines in Burkina Faso and Guinea, told Reuters last month it had suspended its commercial activities with Russian counterparties.

“MKS suspended our cooperation, and we redirected gold ore from our African mines to refineries in other countries,” Nordgold said, declining to say which refineries the gold was now going to.

Source: Voice of America